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Posted: Jul 28, 2012

Plasmon-based control of magneto-optical properties of ferromagnetic nanoparticles

(Nanowerk News) Iranian, Swedish and Spanish researchers carried out a theoretical and empirical investigation about the effect of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) on the magneto-optical activity in ferromagnetic nanoparticles (see paper in Nano Letters: "Designer Magnetoplasmonics with Nickel Nanoferromagnets").

The research, conducted by Iranian scientists at the Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology (KNTU) in close collaboration with their Swedish colleagues at Chalmers University of Technology and KTH Royal Institute of Technology as well as Spanish experts affiliated with Centro de Fisica de Materiales (CSICUPV/EHU) and Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), was focused on examining the influence of LSPR upon the magneto-optical (MO) characteristics of ferromagnetic nanoparticles including nickel, cobalt and iron through their Kerr rotation data.

Kerr rotation describes the changes to light reflected from a ferromagnetic surface subject to a static magnetic field and is also known as the Kerr rotation effect in Physics.

An innovative feature of the research lies in the suggestion of the possibility of a considerable change in the Kerr rotations direction due to LSPR within nickel nanoparticles. It is worthwhile to mention that control of the Kerr rotation, as a magneto-optical effect, is achievable via the adjustment of plasmon properties in the mentioned ferromagnetic nanoparticles. The latter highlights the application of nanotechnology in the conducted study.

The described research work entails integration of the magneto-optical phenomenon and the plasmon resonance in a simple nanostructure such as nickel to open new horizons in biochemosensing. This is in contrast to the prior investigations reported in the literature where the implemented structures, or nanostructures, had been of excessively complex natures.

Source: INIC

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